Spieth’s triumphant walk up the 18th fairway on Sunday at the Masters in 2015
“This was arguably the greatest day of my life…to join Masters history
and put my name on that trophy and to have this Jacket forever, it’s
something that I can’t fathom right now.”
— Jordan Spieth, April 2015
I don’t know about you, but it’s surprising to learn that it was 10 years ago when a 21-year-old Spieth won the Masters, capturing the golf world’s admiration for his game, grit, and humble and well-grounded personality. Really, it’s been a decade?
In many ways, Spieth’s arrival as a precocious major winner rivaled that of Tiger Woods’ in 1997 when he won the Masters by 12 (!) shots, becoming the youngest (21 years, 104 days) player to don the green jacket. Older when he won by only 154 days, Spieth was a wire-to-wire (the solo leader after each round) champion in 2015 when he opened with a sensational eight-under-par 64. Much like Tiger in his prime, he grew his lead each round, never taking his foot off the pedal. As television commentator Colt Knost once said about another player with the lead, “He was all gas; no brake.”
At one point in Spieth’s third round, Tiger’s mind-boggling margin of victory in 1997 seemed endangered. On Saturday, he birdied the par-3 16th hole, increasing his lead to seven strokes. But then Spieth stumbled badly on the 17th, incurring an unsettling double-bogey. He appeared to be still wobbling on 18 when his approach shot missed the green, leaving him with a devilish chip. After methodically sizing up the shot, he deftly struck his wedge to within five feet and saved par for a 70 and 200 total, establishing a 54-hole record.
After that third round, two-time Masters champion Ben Crenshaw spoke with Golf Digest’s Dave Shedowski and said, “That up and down was big at 18 … after absolutely killing himself at 17… He’s been hitting good putts all week. He knows these lines so well – already, at just 21 years old. Just amazing.” Crenshaw went on to say that Spieth, a fellow Texas Longhorn, had an uncanny and precocious gift for playing Augusta National.
“He plays the golf course like someone with far more experience, like he’s been here for years and years, and that helps,” said Crenshaw. “It’s not how many times you’ve played it, it’s how well you understand it.”
That understanding didn’t fail him during Sunday’s final round when he teed off with a four-stroke lead over Justin Rose. Even after Rose birdied in front of him on no. 1, Spieth responded and rolled in his putt to match him. He was never seriously challenged for the rest of the round, growing his lead to six shots with a birdie on 10. Only a careless bogey on 18 spoiled Spieth’s chance to set the Masters 72-hole scoring record of 19-under par. His final round of 70 was good enough to match Woods’ historic total of 270, 18-under.
Spieth set and still holds the Masters record for most birdies during the tournament, a mind-boggling 28. That’s an average of seven per round! Equally impressive, given the pressure of winning your first major, let alone the Masters, is Spieth matching 1941 champion Craig Woods’ notable feat of leading the tournament by at least three shots from the opening round to the trophy presentation. All gas; no brake.
Lost in the appreciation for Spieth’s popular victory in 2015 is the fact that the year before, at age 20 in his Masters debut, he was in the final group on Sunday and tied for the lead with Bubba Watson. At one point during that round, he had a 2-shot advantage over Watson. But consecutive bogies by Spieth at no. 8 and no. 9 while Watson birdied led to a pivotal four-shot swing. Watson held his lead on the back nine and finished with a final-round 69, pulling away from runner-ups Spieth (72) and Sweden’s Jonas Blixt (71) for a three-shot win and a 280 total. Reflecting on that final round, Spieth said: “So I guess the hardest lesson… was that I had an opportunity to make a dream come true, and I had it in my hands, and then I was just a little anxious.”
In 2015, a less anxious and more assured Spieth won the Masters, making the dream come true.
Today, the 31-year-old Spieth is happily married to his high school sweetheart and a father of two with one on the way. He still considers Ellie, his younger sister who has special needs, his biggest “hero.”
Highly respected by his peers, he’s now a “veteran,” a 13-time Tour champion, including three majors. Last year, he struggled with a nagging wrist issue that impacted his iron play. Still, he lost the RBC Heritage Classic in a playoff to Matt Fitzpatrick. Spieth then bypassed the fall portion of the PGA Tour schedule after having surgery on his wrist in August.
This season, he’s showing signs of the “old Spieth” after only four starts beginning in February. He’s had two top-10 finishes, including last week’s T-9 at the Cognizant Classic. It’s expected he’ll play in at least three more tournaments before the Masters.
When he returns to Augusta and drives down Magnolia, Spieth will undoubtedly feel confident at a place so special to him and where his consistent play is unmatched. In fact, of all players with 25 to 40 rounds at the Masters, Spieth is the leader with a 70.95 scoring average. His mark of seven high finishes since 2014 is more telling: T-2, 1st, T-2, T-11, 3, T-3 and T-4. He missed the cut last year and in ’22 and was T-46 in 2020. But in the previous 11 years, no player has been in contention so often as Spieth.
“I love contending here more than I do just about anywhere else,” said Spieth last April.
Many observers feel Spieth, now fully recovered from his wrist injury and putting well again, will be a factor next month in Augusta. If he does, given his popularity with Masters patrons and golf fans everywhere, I suspect they’ll echo the words of Crenshaw thinking ahead to watching Spieth’s historic final round in 2015:
“I’ll be living and dying with him on every shot.”
photo courtesy of the PGA TOUR and the Jordan Spieth Foundation
